Originally phone sex services consisted of a managed network of dispatchers (live or automated) and erotic performers.

Performers would come to a studio where they received a cubicle, coaching, and cash incentives to keep callers on the line longer.

Originally, per-minute billing was provided by phone companies (in the U. There was, from some services, an attempt to keep the caller aroused but short of orgasm, so he would spend more money.

(This attitude still survives among some providers.) When public (mostly female) pressure forced the phone companies to stop providing this service to sex workers, a transition was made to a manual method: pre-paid blocks of time, 10, 30, 60 minutes, whatever the customer would pay for.

Leonard herself was surprised at the success of these numbers.

Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people on the phone where one or more of the individuals is describing the act of sex.

Phone sex takes imagination on both parties' part; virtual sex is difficult if the operator does not put the images in the head of the caller and the caller must be open to the pleasure as well.

With the progress of technology it became more practical, convenient, and economical for providers to work out of their homes.

Human dispatchers — female, except for gay male phone sex — answered the advertised phone numbers, processed payment via credit card, chose who of the available performers in the dispatcher's judgment best matched the clients' fantasy (grandma, black girl, college girl, etc.), and connected the client with the provider. Either could hang up, though some services put economic pressure on providers not to do so.